Leased Car. Going over mileage

[Seizure]

So yea,

I am currently leasing a new 2003 golf for 48 months and I'm allowed 15K miles a year. And after the first month, my normal driving habits shows I go atleast 1,500 miles per month. This is basic going to work, going grocery shopping. No road trips, no excessive driving around the block for fun kind of deal. So if we do the man

1,500 x 12 (months) = 18,000 miles per year. So i'm over 3,000 miles each year. Multiply that by the 4 years I'll have the car and that's 12,000 miles. At 15 cents a mile over, that's $1800 in penalties when I return the car.

So, what can I do? One of my friends suggested that once my car hits the 60,000 mile limit, I just put it in the garage, continue paying the monthly lease, and go out and buy/lease a new car. Even though I'll be paying for 2 cars, it'll still be cheaper. But there's gotta be another alternative. I know I definately would want another Volkswagen, maybe a JEtta or another Golf. Is there some sort of bonus if I stick wtih them, they'll wave the penalty charge or something?


Thanks.

 

[filmmaker]

Techinically in the long run it won't be cheaper. Just continue using the car you have and once you go to trade in the car, use the money that they would give you for the trade in to pay off the over limit fee.

 

[GasX]

I was heading for the same problem. My solution was to turn in the vehicle early. You pay a large portion but not all of the remaining lease payments, but you can avoid the mileage penalty. Depending on your likely overage, you can calculate the best time to turn it in. This is a better solution than parking it for the remainder of the lease.

 

[dman]

Next time buy a car you can afford long term.

Or

You can do as everyone else does in that situation and trade it in a few mo's before the lease is up and roll the costs into the next vehicle. Eventually you'll be sacked with a nice penalty... but you can put it off for some time... the dealers are very creative with their financing terms.

 

[dxkj]

you could just buy the car instead of paying the extra miles. Then either keep or sell it.

 

[Seizure]

Yea I heard sometimes, if you wind up buying/keeping the car, they waive the penalties. I was hoping they would wave the penalties if I leased another Volkswagen through them.

The reason why I'm leasing is because I just graduated college. Got my first job. I don't plan on staying at my current location for long as I do want to return home to NYC when the job market is better. So where I am now, vehicle is a must, back in NYC i have mass transit. So I figured lease a car, and I can get rid of it when I go home. Plus I"ll have lower monthly payments since I'm just starting out and I don't want to worry about the headaches of getting used car and all the problems that come with it.

 

[Seizure]

plus, if it wasn't for leasing, i probably would've wound up with a used civic or other small sedan. Not to say civic isn't a bad car, it's a great car, but i dunno, I'm just so damn happy with my VW Golf. It's just something about paying a tad extra for german engineering, and their attention to little details. You know their motto "Driver's Wanted".

 

[dxkj]

No, I doubt it works like that. You dont pay the penatlies if you buy the car, because your on the one who gets stuck with it. If you lease another car, you still pay penatlies because they are out 12k miles on a car that your not keeping.

 

[dxkj]

Originally posted by: Seizure
plus, if it wasn't for leasing, i probably would've wound up with a used civic or other small sedan. Not to say civic isn't a bad car, it's a great car, but i dunno, I'm just so damn happy with my VW Golf. It's just something about paying a tad extra for german engineering, and their attention to little details. You know their motto "Driver's Wanted".

Im glad your happy with it, but there's something about that motto that just turns me off. We want drivers because we are stuck with too many of these cars enough people wont buy for some reason?

 

[MysticLlama]

We're going through the same thing with our Jetta, but we're going to hit more like 5k over a year.

Here's how I figured it out:

I took how much my estimated overage would be and multiplied it by .15

Then I divided that among the remaining months on our lease.

I just pay over by $40-50 a month, and in the end, I'll skip the last 4-5 payments and can save that money straight towards paying the mileage.

That way we don't have to garage the car, and we also don't have to come up with a lump sum payment right at the end.

Maybe that would work out for you, or, if not, at least enough to skip at least a payment, maybe two at the end to make it easier.

It doesn't actually save money long term like paying over on a purchased car does, since the interest on a lease is pre-calcuated, but it's a real easy savings plan that keeps you from touching the money.

 

[LordJezo]

15k a year?

Damn. I did 6k in less then 3 months on my car.

 

[Seizure]

Originally posted by: MysticLlama
We're going through the same thing with our Jetta, but we're going to hit more like 5k over a year.

Here's how I figured it out:

I took how much my estimated overage would be and multiplied it by .15

Then I divided that among the remaining months on our lease.

I just pay over by $40-50 a month, and in the end, I'll skip the last 4-5 payments and can save that money straight towards paying the mileage.

That way we don't have to garage the car, and we also don't have to come up with a lump sum payment right at the end.

Maybe that would work out for you, or, if not, at least enough to skip at least a payment, maybe two at the end to make it easier.

It doesn't actually save money long term like paying over on a purchased car does, since the interest on a lease is pre-calcuated, but it's a real easy savings plan that keeps you from touching the money.

I'm kind of not following you a bit. I figured out you want to put aside $30-$40 a month for your mileage penalties. But you skip out on the payments by turning them in early? I always thought you had to pay no matter what on what you owed.

 

[dxkj]

Originally posted by: Seizure

Originally posted by: MysticLlama
We're going through the same thing with our Jetta, but we're going to hit more like 5k over a year.

Here's how I figured it out:

I took how much my estimated overage would be and multiplied it by .15

Then I divided that among the remaining months on our lease.

I just pay over by $40-50 a month, and in the end, I'll skip the last 4-5 payments and can save that money straight towards paying the mileage.

That way we don't have to garage the car, and we also don't have to come up with a lump sum payment right at the end.

Maybe that would work out for you, or, if not, at least enough to skip at least a payment, maybe two at the end to make it easier.

It doesn't actually save money long term like paying over on a purchased car does, since the interest on a lease is pre-calcuated, but it's a real easy savings plan that keeps you from touching the money.

I'm kind of not following you a bit. I figured out you want to put aside $30-$40 a month for your mileage penalties. But you skip out on the payments by turning them in early? I always thought you had to pay no matter what on what you owed.

I think he meant this...


Lease costs 300 dollars a month. He pays 350 a month instead. That means he will be done paying on the lease a few months before he is actually done, lets say 4. So, for the next 4 months he pays on his over driving. 4 x 350= 1400. He now has 1400 dollars to cover running over the mileage, and it wasnt a big lump, it was spread out over the entire lease.

 

[TranSoft]

If you know someone that knows about pulling the odoometer plug off the car... have them do that and put it back on once you're ready to return the car.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: TranSoft
If you know someone that knows about pulling the odoometer plug off the car... have them do that and put it back on once you're ready to return the car.

Considering that his car has a digital odometer I'd have to hazard a guess and say that this is exceptionally difficult (at best).

Follow advice others said and, in the future, don't lease.

 

[dmurray14]

Actually, although I have no clue how to do it, I have heard that flipping back a digital odometer is as easy as typing in the numbers you want on the computer and pressing enter, so long as you have an interface cable.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: dmurray14
Actually, although I have no clue how to do it, I have heard that flipping back a digital odometer is as easy as typing in the numbers you want on the computer and pressing enter, so long as you have an interface cable.

Only if you're L337 with a linUx b0x and m3gar4m.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
I was heading for the same problem. My solution was to turn in the vehicle early. You pay a large portion but not all of the remaining lease payments, but you can avoid the mileage penalty. Depending on your likely overage, you can calculate the best time to turn it in. This is a better solution than parking it for the remainder of the lease.

What do you mean by large portion, and what's earily? Using Seizure example, he will still have 8 months left on his lease when he hits 60k. Let's use $300 for his monthly payment, and say he still owes $2400 for the 8 months and then the $1800 in penalties for a total of $4400. If he turns it in after month 40 what will he owe?

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: TranSoft
If you know someone that knows about pulling the odoometer plug off the car... have them do that and put it back on once you're ready to return the car.

Uh, the engine won't run properly, and your CE light will on steady. If it's an auto, it also will not shift properly. Oh, the speedometer won't work either, so when you're pulled over for speeding, and say, "I don't know how fast, officer, the speedometer's broken," you'll get two tickets, instead of avoiding getting pulled over in the first place by knowing how fast you're going.

So, in short, that's a bad idea.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Mwilding
I was heading for the same problem. My solution was to turn in the vehicle early. You pay a large portion but not all of the remaining lease payments, but you can avoid the mileage penalty. Depending on your likely overage, you can calculate the best time to turn it in. This is a better solution than parking it for the remainder of the lease.

What do you mean by large portion, and what's earily? Using Seizure example, he will still have 8 months left on his lease when he hits 60k. Let's use $300 for his monthly payment, and say he still owes $2400 for the 8 months and then the $1800 in penalties for a total of $4400. If he turns it in after month 40 what will he owe?

At any given time, the bank can give out a pay-off amount. It might be pretty close to $2400 though, maybe only a few hundred less. Still, that's what I would do.

 

[Seizure]

Yup. My monthly payment is $260/month. I'm thinking it won't be so bad. Sure I"m burning a lot more miles now, but I don't envision myself working in the same place all 4 years. I was hoping within 2-3 years to go back to NYC. And if I did, that last year or so would have very little mileage.

But you guys definately came up with a lot of good suggestions. I think there's also another option where you can turn in your car 6 months early I think if you give them a call up. I don't know any more details on this though